Dauntless
by abbyriggs
Summary: Even in a world belonging to the dead, its humans that are the real monsters. (Carl/OC)
1. 1: Intro

Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead, obviously.

Anna May Walsh sat on the counter in her father's kitchenette. She swung her legs back and forth, waiting for Shane to return from the hospital. He was taking Rick flowers from the police department, and Anna couldn't go because hospitals made her nervous.

Still, she now wishes she could of gone with him anyway, she didn't like being in the apartment alone. If she had gone with him, she would be at the pizza place by now.

Anna sighs and jumped of the counter. She takes a pop tart and juice box out of a cabinet and walks over to the TV. If her dad is late, which he most likely is, she won't eat for a while. Just as she's about to turn ion the tv, the door swings open.

"Let's go kid." Shane says. He doesn't even step into the apartment, he stands just outside the door. Anna runs over to the kitchen, putting the unopened juice box and pop tart back where they belong. She then runs over to the door, and she and her father walk to the car in silence.

"How was Rick?" Anna asks, strapping her seatbelt.

Shane looks away sadly. "He's not getting any better. If he wakes up it won't be for a long time." His hands tighten on the steering wheel. "But let's not tell Lori or Carl that okay? Stay positive. They've been through enough already." Anna nods. She doesn't like keeping something this big from the Grimes', but she doesn't want them to be sad. Her dad said that's why they were going out to eat tonight, so they wouldn't think about Rick.

As they pull up to Pizza Palace, Shane hands Anna a few dollars. "Don't bring up Rick." He reminds her sternly.

"Yes daddy." Anna says with a remorseful smile.

They meet Lori and Carl outside the restaurant. Lori hugs them both. "Hi you guys." As Lori reaches down to hug her, Anna notices how tired she looks.

"Hello Lori. Anna, why don't you go play the arcade games with Carl while Lori and I order? We'll meet you at the table in a few minutes." Shane says as they walk in.

"Ok." Carl and Anna say in unison. They then race over the nineties style arcade games. Anna hands Carl a dollar and he puts in into a game called 'Deer Hunting 1995'. They pick up the plastic guns and watch virtual deer run across the screen. Carl is insanely focused, with the butt of the gun on his shoulder and his left eye closed. Anna holds the front of the of the toy rifle with both hands, the end tucked behind her back. The end score ends up being thirty to twenty eight, Anna being the winner.

Carl frowns. "Damn things rigged." He kicks the machine. "But I still think we should play again."

Anna rolls her eyes. "No. I want to play Pac Man. Besides, you wouldn't want to lose to a girl twice."

"Fine, we'll see who can get the highest score in a minute. Me first!" Carl yells, pushing to the machine. Anna rolls her eyes again, but still times Carl.

"Fifty nine Mississippi, sixty. My turn Grimes." This time Anna playfully pushes past him, making Carl do his cute little half smile. Anna's knees go weak, and she can't focus, and loses the game. Anna groans. "Fine."

Carl smiles again. "Ha! Now let's try to beat the high score." They work as a team, Carl on the controls while Anna yells orders at him. It takes ten minutes, but they finally beat Sam, the previous high score. "What should our name be?" Carl asks, scrolling through pages of previous high scores. Anna sees most of the names are things like 'Gay' or 'Sex'.

"Um, we can't do our intial's or anything, so let's put ass." Anna says, typing it in. Carl laughs really hard, and Anna shakes her head. Even though she suggested it, Carl laughs more than Anna does. He giggles all the way to the table where there parents are sitting.

"Did you guys have fun?" Shane asks.

"Yeah." Anna says, handing her dad the money she didn't use.

"That's good." Shane says, ruffling her hair before turning back to his conversation with Lori about the president.

Anna picks up a slice of cheese pizza, thinking about how she wishes Carl acted this way around her at school instead of ignoring her. When it was just the two of them, Carl was the nicest, coolest boy in the world. But when they were at school, he pretended he didn't see her wave or that he doesn't hear her. Anna flicks off a tiny piece of unwanted pepperoni, wishing boys weren't so messed up.

As the four of them stand outside Pizza Palace, everyone says good bye. Lori raves about how fun tonight has been, even though in Anna's opinion the adults didn't do anything interesting, just sat there talking about boring stuff. Shane agrees, even though Anna knows he would've rather had Rick there, leading the conversation.

Carl walks over to Anna. "You should sit with me at lunch tomorrow."

Anna smiles. "Alright. Can my friends come to?" Carl nods, then Anna does something she never ever thought she would do. She leans in and kisses him on the cheek. His face is really soft, and instantly turns red. Anna faces burns, and it's probably much redder than Carl's is.

"Bye Carl." She says, and turns around to her dad's car.

"Bye!" He calls from behind her as she walks away.

"Wow, I didn't know you had a thing for Carl." Her dad teases as they get in the car. "I wish you had told me, I coulda set you up a long time ago. You know, this was kinda like a little date. Next we should go to the movies."

"Shut up." Anna says simply. She can't stop smiling. There's no way Carl will ignore her now.


	2. 2: Bombs and Checkers

Anna woke up very confused. Her dad didn't wake her up like he normally did on school days. Anna flips over to face her digital clock. "9:15?" She exclaimed, sitting up on her bed. She jumped out of bed and ran to the shower. She showers, brushes her teeth, brushes her hair, puts on her clothes, and finishes getting ready in a span of five minutes. Anna frowns at her reflection. Even if she leaves now, she'll have missed first hour and a large portion of second.

"Daddy!" Anna yells, walking into the living room area. "Why didn't you wake me up?" Her dad, dressed in his work uniform, doesn't answer, instead her just stares at the TV. Anna looks at the TV to, and her eyes go wide.

"The zombies, referred to as 'walkers' by the military, seem to target living things, such as animals and people. They eat flesh, and are to be avoided at all cost. If anyone you know has bitten, take them to your local hospital before they turn into a walker." The newswoman barely finishes the last sentence before the TV goes black.

"Go pack. Just the things you absolutely need, no exceptions." Shane commands, not even looking at Anna.

Anna obeys, and walks back to her tiny room. She empties the backpack that used to hold her school supplies, spilling papers and pencils all over the carpet. Anna sees a folded piece of paper and smiles. She always kept the notes she passed with Alexis, her best friend. This was the last one they had passed, a few days ago. She knew what it said, useless things about kids from their school and celebrities they liked. But she still kept it, sliding it in the pocket of her jeans. Then she fills her backpack with clothes, for all seasons. She puts things like her toothbrush and hairbrush in it, before taking two pictures from under her pillow. One is of her parents, when they were twenty one, a year before Anna was born. They were sitting at a table in a bar, smiling really big. The other picture was the day she was born, the two of sitting in the hospital bed, holding her.

Her dad was not very sentimental, and would not approve of the note or the pictures. She puts the pictures under some clothes anyway, hoping Shane won't notice the edge sticking out. Anna zips up the backpack and flung it over her shoulder.

"I'm ready daddy." Anna calls, walking into the kitchen. She sees Shane also has a backpack on, but his is much bigger and has two sleeping bags strapped on top of it.

He stops stacking cans of food and holds up a hand gun. "You remember what I taught you? Pull this to shoot it and do this to put on the safety." He says, demonstrating the safety. Anna nods, and Shane puts the gun in a duffle bag, along with two holsters, ammo, and his own gun. He also puts the non-perishable food in the bag, tents and other camping supplies, and covers it with a blanket. "Don't want anyone stealing our stuff." Shane says, when he sees Anna looking at the bag curiously.

Anna doesn't understand how an old thin blanket will keep people from looking through their stuff, but she doesn't say anything about it. "When are we leaving?" She asks instead. "How are we leaving?" She asks after a minute.

Shane puts the duffle bag on. "The fire escape. There are too many walkers in the hall for us to leave through the front door. And we're leaving right now."

Anna gulps. Heights scared almost as much as hospitals did. But she took a deep breath, knowing she can't get out of climbing the fire escape. Shane smiles at her. "Let's go."

Shane climbs down first, making sure Anna doesn't fall. He also pulls down the fire escape ladder, which they climb down in thirty seconds. Anna is amazed they haven't run into any walkers yet, and she doesn't want to. But as they get into the cars, Anna noticing what used to be the doorman, Jack, limping towards the car. Shane doesn't even blink as he runs over him.

"Where are we going?" Anna asks, noticing the car is going the opposite way of Atlanta, where a safe house has been set up.

"We're going to get Rick." Shane says. Anna stiffens. They're going to the hospital. She doesn't want to go. She can't go. But she lets out a deep breath. She can't stay home this time.

As they pull up to King County hospital, in the Recovery Ward parking lot, Shane pulled out the guns. "Don't be scared Anna May. You won't survive very long if you're scared." Shane pauses, and takes his navy blue 'police' cap out of the duffle bag and places it on her head. "This will keep you safe." He says as Anna tightens the cap. "So will this." He says handing Anna the gun.

"Let's get Rick." Anna says, taking the gun and switching it off safety.

Shane smiles. "Atta girl."

As they enter the crowded south ward, Anna's nose wrinkles. It smells like rotted flesh. People bump into them mercilessly, running from walkers. Anna follows Shane as he looks for Rick's room. "Ma'am please, I need your help." Shane says, grabbing a passing nurse by the hand. She squeezes his hand, but runs past him. Shane runs forward, looking into each room. Anna stops, watching soldiers take out both walkers and humans. When the soldiers take them all out, walkers come in through the door behind them, easily over powering them. Shane pulls Anna into Ricks room.

"Is he okay?" Anna asks, helping her dad pull a gurney in.

"I don't know." Shane attempts to lift Rick onto the gurney. "We're gonna get you out of here buddy." Shane walks over to Rick's life support machine. Anna hears more gunshots, and a man wearing heavy boots approaching. "Get under the bed!" Shane yell whispers, climbing under with Anna. A national guard sticks his head in, looks around, and leaves. Suddenly, there's a loud booming noise, and the lights go out.

"Is it out?" Anna asks, gesturing towards Rick's life support machine.

Shane nods sadly, placing his head to Rick's chest. "His heart stopped." Shane pumps Rick chest. "Give me a sign, c'mon." Shane mutters. His eyes fill up with tears. Anna has never seen her dad cry, and it feels weird. She places her hand on her dads, trying to comfort him. The building rumbles, and Shane pulls Anna by the collar out the door. He stops, watching about seven walkers limp towards them. "Help me push this thing." Shane and Anna put the gurney in front of Rick's door. He glances at Anna before covering his mouth and instructing Anna to do the same. The point their guns forward and run out of the hospital.

They barely make it out of the hospital, between all the walkers and soldier's arguing with them about being infected. Anna hadn't noticed, she is sweating like crazy. But she's proud of herself, she faced her fear, and now felt invincible.

That doesn't last very long, because they're driving to the Grimes' house now. No one says anything, and the car is uncomfortably quiet. Shane turns on the radio, pretending to be really focused on it. Anna plays with her hat, tracing the brim with her thumb. As they pull up the blue house, Shane doesn't say anything, he just lets out a deep breath and looks at Anna sadly. Anna feels like throwing up. How are you supposed to tell someone their husbands dead? Or that their dads never coming back? Anna keeps telling herself that this was better for Rick. Dying in your sleep was better than being mauled by zombies. That doesn't help though, no one got to say to good bye to him.

Shane knocks slowly on the white door. "Shane what's wrong?" Lori asks, noticing his tear stained cheeks. "Oh my god." Lori says quietly. Shane pulls her into a hug, and they enter their house. Carl is sitting on their couch, surrounded by packed bags. "Carl sweetie." Lori says kneeling in front of him. "Daddy didn't make it." Lori runs her hand through Carl's dark brown hair. "Please be brave, be strong for him." Lori chokes out. They begin crying, hugging each other.

Shane places his hand on Anna's shoulder. "Let's put their stuff into the car." He whispers. They do it as quietly as possible, trying not to disturb Lori and Carl. They have packed a lot more than Shane and Anna did, but Anna doesn't say anything.

They walk back inside, and Shane clears his throat. "We um, should probably get going. Unless y'all need some more time.''

Lori shakes her head. "It's now or never." She sighs. "Come on baby." She tells Carl. Lori gives one last look at the inside of her house. She sniffles before opening the door and leading them to Shane's car.

As they drive away, Anna stares out the window. It makes her sad. King County, the place where she was born and raised, was a mess. Windows were boarded up, cars and houses were abandoned, but worst of all, walkers were everywhere. They tried to chase the car, but just gave up after a minute or two. Anna looks at Carl. She wants to ask him how he's doing, but he's asleep. Anna smiles lightly, he looks adorable when he's asleep. She takes the police cap off her head and does the same thing.

Anna wakes up when she feels the car stop. "What happened?" She asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"Traffics backed up. Looks like we'll be here for a while." Shane says, as Anna places the cap back on her head.

Anna groans, accidently waking Carl up. "Where are we?" Carl asks confusedly.

"Traffics stopped. We're stuck." Lori says. "Why don't you and Anna go walk around, ok sweetie?"

"Ok mom." Carl says as they climb out of the car. "What do you want to do?" Carl asks, looking around.

"I don't know." Anna says, crossing her arms. In the hatchback of the car right next to them a blonde girl is playing checkers all by herself. Anna nudges Carl, pointing the girl. "Hi." Anna says quietly, walking towards her. Anna was kind of shy at first, but the girl seemed nice.

"Hi. I'm Sophia." Anna is surprised, as tiny as the girl is, she's not shy at all.

"I'm Anna, and this is Carl." Carl smiles lightly. "Can we play with you?"  
Sophia nods, and Anna and Carl climb onto the hatchback. They start playing for a little bit, and Anna notices Lori and Shane have gotten out of the car too, and are talking to who Anna assumes is Sophia's mom. She can hear pieces of their conversation, talking about how crazy this whole thing is.

"Your dad seems nice." Sophia says, moving a red piece.  
"He's not my dad, my dad's dead…" Carl says quietly. Anna looks down, playing with her hands. She's not playing chess now, she'll play the winner. Until then, she watches them carefully.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Sophia says guiltily. "Is he your dad?" Sophia asks, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah… And the girl is Carl's mom. They're not together or anything though. Our dads were best friends before this happened, so my Dad's taking care of Carl and his mom." Anna explains, bringing her knees to her chest.

"That explains a lot." Sophia laughs. Anna gives her a confused look. "It explains why you have an accent and Carl doesn't, and why you guys don't look alike. Well, except your hair and skin. Wait, not even your hair. Yours is lighter." Sophia points to Anna. That was true, Anna has dark hair, but light streaks she got from her mom.

Anna opens her mouth to say something, but is interrupted by loud arguing. Shane and Lori run over to the men, who are fighting over what looks like food. Anna climbs off the hatchback and walks to the other side of the car, by Sophia. She cranes her neck, but Sophia pulls the sleeve of her t-shirt. "Huh?" Sophia points to the sky, and Anna follows her finger. Up in the sky, about six military helicopters are flying over Atlanta. They remind her of birds, flying in formation.

Anna feels bad for thinking it, but as bombs fall from the helicopter, Anna thinks its one of the coolest things she's ever seen.


	3. 3: Tell it to the Frogs Part One

It has always just been the two of them. Anna and Shane. No one else. He protected her and she protected him. Not even the women her dad had brought home late at night could come between the strong father daughter bond. It was the two of them against the world, as her dad would say. Anna loved it that way, and Shane had promised her it would be just the two of them forever. Anna watches him flirt with Lori and play with Carl. He lied.

"So much for just the two of us." Anna grumbles, angrily folding a pink shirt. It was the Walsh two, not the Grimes-Walsh four. Eliza gives her a curious look, the two girls are sitting together doing chores. Chores. Something the almighty Grimes family never bothered to do. Anna had noticed a few weeks earlier Lori's definition of work was watching, sitting, and talking. It looked like that trait had rubbed off on Carl. "Why does my daddy like them so much anyway? I mean, look at them. Haircuts? The world ended, didn't the great Grimes' family get the memo?" Anna loudly complains, hoping they'll hear her.

Eliza sighs, putting down the jeans she's folding. "Anna, be nice. That's all your dads doing. Her husband died. She's just trying to keep things normal for Carl. Or at least that's what she keeps telling my mom." Eliza leans in. "Don't be so jealous chica."

Anna scoffs. Before she can say argue, Sophia walks up to them carrying another basket of laundry. She places it in of the already busy girls. "Sorry." She says sheepishly when they groan. "It's the last one, I swear." She crosses her heart for emphasis. She looks between the two pre-teens before raising her eyebrow. "What's wrong? Why's everyone more serious than normal?"

"Anna's jealous of Lori and Carl." Eliza says, pulling two black socks out of the new basket.

"Am not!" Anna crosses her arms.

Sophia rolls her eyes. "Weren't you 'in love' with Carl two weeks ago?"

"That was before my dad started liking them more than me." Anna said, suddenly very interested in the shirt she was folding. Upon further inspection, she realized it was _Carls _shirt, the Spider Man one. She finds herself smiling at the thought of him and how he loved comic books. He once spent three hours forcing her to read early additions of The Amazing Spiderman, but she never got into comic books like he did.

She quickly realizes what she's doing and frowns. "I'm just saying, Carl has Lori, he doesn't need Shane. Why doesn't my dad just look after me?"

"I dunno. Why don't you ask him?" Eliza points to Shane, who's approaching the trio.

"Hello girls, mind if borrow Anna for a second?" He asks. He doesn't wait for a response, instead he pulls her away to a slightly secluded spot. He bends down to be at her height. "I hope you know Lori and Carl heard your little play, and now there very upset. So you're going to march over there and apologize right now. And as for punishment, you're grounded. No more playing with Louis, no more gossiping with Eliza and Sophia, from now on you're to stay by my side twenty four seven. You only talk to who I talk too. Understand?"

Anna nods and gulps. She now wishes she hadn't talked so loud. She walks over to where Lori and Carl are sitting. Neither one of them looks very sad to her. But she still clears her throat. "I'm real sorry y'all. I guess I was just scared and nervous so I took it out on you two. But you don't deserve that. So yeah, I'm really sorry." Anna looks down at her shoes.

"Its fine sweetie. We've all been there before. Just promise that next time, you'll be a little more discreet, ok?" Lori says smiling.

"I promise." Anna says before running off. She's about to go play with Louis, who is stacking rocks together into a tower. But then she remembers her dads warning. Sighing, she walks back over to where her dad is.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar noise breaks the silence. Well, it's kind of familiar, but she cant place until she sees the red challenger pull into the rocky quarry of camp. Nothing like a blaring car alarm to make you glad there's no more technology.

"Turn that damn thing off!" Dale commands.

"I don't know how!" Glenn says. The Asian man is smiling broadly, but stops once he is bombarded with questions by Amy.

"Is Andrea ok? Is she with you?" Anna is worried to. Everyone who went on that run is so nice. Well maybe not Merle. But everyone else.

Jim disconnects the car alarm as Glenn explains how everyone's ok, except Merle, thank god. He made her uncomfortable, with how racist he was and how he put his hands all over the women. He never did it to her, but she had overheard Andrea and Amy talking about it.

Anna doesn't listen to her father criticize Glenn, instead she stands behind him boredly. Survivors come out of the cube van one by one. Andrea and Amy reunite, Morales and his family reunite, everyone seems happy. Except for Carl, who Lori pulls away to comfort.

"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asks, looking pretty confused.

"New guy." Glenn begins to explain.

He is cut off by Morales. "Crazy Vato just got into town. Hey Helicopter boy, come say hello! Guys a cop, like you." He points to Shane, who places his hand on Annas back.

And suddenly, Anna is very confused. Rick Grimes walks out slowly, dressed in his sheriff's deputy uniform. They all exchange confused looks before Carl notices. "DAD!" He screams, running towards Rick. It feels like something out of a movie, like time is standing still. Lori runs after Carl after Carl and they hug, it feels unreal. Anna could've sworn he was dead, his heart stopped. But he came back. Not in a walker kind of way, but in a beautiful, miraculous way. Anna holds her dads hand, suddenly feeling bad for thinking anything mean about the Grimes.

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closet. Fear, confusion, all those things, but disoriented comes closet." Anna sits with her head in Shane's shoulder, listening to Rick explain waking up in the hospital. She's really missed Rick, more then she thought she did.

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale says.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life, and put somewhere else." Rick explains.

"I'm going to bed." As the conversation switches to discussion about Dales watch, Anna grows bored. Anna whispers to her dad. He nods, letting her go.

Anna doesn't even feel bad that she lied to her dad when she goes to the lake instead of her tent. It had only been a day, but she still missed her freedom. Just because everyone was dead and cannibalistic doesn't mean she can't have any more privacy. She sits on one of the hard ground, staring at the moons reflection on the water. It's so pretty, she should be happy. For the first time since the world ended, things have been going right. But something doesn't feel right. Something feels…off.

Anna throws a rock, watching it sink to the bottom of the lake.

"You're not very good at skipping rocks.'' Someone says from behind her.

Anna spins around, her hand instinctively going to her gun. She had to wrap the holster around her leg, it's too big to fit around her waist. Once she sees it just Carl, she sighs, relived. "Wasn't trying to, I just felt like throwing something."

Carl sits next to her, placing his knees to his chest. "Whatever." He murmurs.

"How'd you find me?" Anna asks.

"Well they started talking about Merle so I got bored, then I saw your flashlight and your reflection so I decided to come say hi to my old pal Anna May."

Anna cringes. "You haven't called me that since like, first grade."

Carl Shrugs. "It fits you somehow. Besides, first grade was fun. Remember when we super glued pizza to your wall?"

"Yeah and then we weren't allowed to be alone anymore. Or use glue." Anna smiles, reminiscent.

"Did you love me then?" Carl asks, smirking. Anna's face goes white. Hopefully, Carl can't see that.

"Who told you?" Anna chokes.

Carl raises an eyebrow. "You did stupid. Remember? Like five hours ago, when you were yelling about Shane and my mom and being jealous."

"Oh. I'm really sorry about that Carl. You know I love you. But not in that way." She attempts to cover her crush on Carl.

Carl pats her shoulder. "No hard feelings. If you were hanging out with my dad as much as I was with Shane, I'd be a little upset to. Besides, I can't stay mad at you; you're like a sister to me."

Those last few words want to make Anna bang her head into one of the many rocks around them.

**A/N: hi everyone! It's been a while. I got my computer taken away, but I'm back now. I should be updating every Saturday. Thanks for reading!**

:


	4. An average Atlanta camp day

**A/N: I'm sorry for not updating yesterday, I was pretty busy. I'm also sorry the last chapter sucked, I made this one extra-long to make up for it. Enjoy **

It was almost funny, that after years of being extra careful to do everything right to keep herself alive and kicking, the most likely way Anna will die is at the hands of something that can't even think. Something that doesn't feel emotion, only hunger. That's not fair. Well, nothings really fair anyways. Might as well get used to it.

"Morning Anna." Carol says as the almost twelve year old exits her tent.

"Good morning Mrs. Peletier. How are you?" Anna asks, pulling her hair into a ponytail before placing her hat on.

"Pretty good for an apocalypse." Carol chuckles. "Sweetie, you can just call me Carol if you want to."

"Ok - Carol." Carol smiles before Anna is called away by her father.

"Anna May, Jacqui's taking Sophia and Carl for a walk out on the trail. You should go with them." Anna knows by should he means would, and she has no choice.

"Ok." Anna sighs, lacking enthusiasm. She's been through the trails a thousand times with Eliza and Louis, she would rather go with them, but they only really played with her when there dad wasn't there. She didn't blame them, considering he wouldn't have come back yesterday had it not been for Rick.

"That's my girl. I'm going to go get water, I'll be right back if you need me."

Anna runs off to where Sophia, Carl, and Jacqui are preparing to leave. "Mind if I join you?"

"Of course not. The more the merrier." Jacqui says.

They leave on the same trail Anna had been on just yesterday, and she walks two feet behind them boredly. But to Carl and Sophia, it's all new and they excitedly chatter about the bugs and trees and other useless things.

"You're being awfully quiet Anna." Jacqui says.

Anna shrugs. "I'm always pretty quiet. I mean, what is there to talk about? Wow, I did my chores today and hunted for berries, how fascinating!" She says sarcastically.

Jacqui laughs. "You remind so much of your father. But I want to know you Anna. The real Anna, not just the little Walsh girl."

Anna thinks for a second. "Well, I'll be twelve May 13th, and I was in sixth grade. My favorite color is blue like the sky on a pretty day. I love reading, and I'm not good at math. I like animals, specifically dogs. My dad used to take care of this drug sniffer dog named Duke, he was amazing. So sweet, but protective at the same time. I wish he was still around, he would've been great for sniffing out walkers. That's all I can think of."

"I remember Duke." Carl says, as Jacqui smiles, pleased with Anna's answer. "He was really good at fetch."

"Hey you guys, what's that smell?" Sophia say wrinkling her nose. They follow the stench to where a half-eaten deer lays motionless under a walker. A rotted old walker with knotted hair and a blood soaked suit. Anna knows she should reach for the gun gently tucked into the holster wrapped around her leg. But she can't move. She is frozen in place, listening the walker devour the poor animal.

Jacqui motions for them to run, and Anna can suddenly move again. She runs faster than she ever has before. She hears the other three screaming from behind her, but she can't think straight. All she sees is that walker, consuming the deer like there's no tomorrow. She mentally tells herself to try vegetarianism.

Once they get back into the comfortable region of camp, Anna sees all the men running towards them. Lori and Carol hug and comfort their children, and Anna feels awkward. Why couldn't her mom be here? Or her dad. It was one walker, it wouldn't take the entire camp to kill it. Why couldn't he come comfort her?

She feels tears well up in her eyes. She walks back to camp slowly. Instead of going to her tent, she goes into the RV, with the other kids. All she wants to do is sit and let herself be sad, in the comfort and sound proofness of the RV. She doesn't even know why she's so sad, this isn't her first walker. Jack the doorman was her friend, and she didn't feel anything when she saw him as a walker. Why was she getting upset now? She didn't know man. He could've been a murderer or pedophile for all she knew.

She hears the younger Dixon brother yelling for the other one, and knows what coming. Those two were like tornados, when they were mad, they pulled everyone in. Whether they deserve it or not. She watches from the window of the RV, but can't hear anything.

Someone comes in, and Anna attempts to wipe away the tears. "Sorry Dale. I just wanted somewhere to think." She turns and sees it actually Andrea. "Oh sorry, thought you were Dale."

"Its fine, I just came in to get my gun. Are you okay?"

"No." She doesn't even bother lying. She starts crying hard, the kind that makes it hard to breathe. The kids stare at her, while Andrea just stands there looking confused. She's obviously never had children. "Are we going to have a funeral?" Anna chokes out between sobs.

Andrea frowns before kneeling in front of her. "I wish we could for everyone, sweetheart. But you know we can't give every walker we come across a funeral. We didn't know that man."

Anna nods with a sad sigh. "I'm sorry for crying to you. My dad's not very good with talking and stuff."

"It's fine. Your dads a good man, Anna. You're very lucky. C'mon let's get out of here, it's really stuffy."

Anna follows Andrea outside, just in time to see her dad pull Daryl into a chokehold, while the redneck man yells at him. "You best let me go!"

"I'm going back in the RV now." Anna says with a sigh. Lori pushes Carl in with her, leaving the door open.

"What are they saying?" Eliza asks Carl, who stands by the door listening.

"They're actually going to get Merle Dixon." Carl says dumbfounded.

It is about half an hour later, and Anna has been sitting in RV, reading. All Dale's books are crappy mystery novels, but she doesn't have anything better to do. She sighs, putting the book down.

"Hi." Anna says walking to Daryl Dixon. She's never talked to him before.

Daryl raises his eyebrow. "Hi?"

"Can I come with y'all?" she asks shyly.

Daryl is obviously surprised. "Sorry kid. This is man's work. Didn't you lock yourself in the RV when you saw one walker? What if you get separated and run into fifty walkers? I don't want a little girl's blood on my hands."

Anna frowns. She really wanted to do this, to prove herself. She doesn't beg though, as previously mentioned she wasn't in a big hurry to get Merle back. "Good luck." She mumbles walking away.

She watches them leave from a distance with her dad and the others. "Do you think they'll bring him back?"

"Rick can do it, don't worry. Now c'mon were catching frogs with Carl." Anna makes a disgusted face. "Don't give me that. All your doing is doing is holding the bucket. You don't even have to go in the water."

Anna changes into old denim shorts and leaves her hat in the tent. She marches to the quarry, where the women are doing laundry across the water. Shane orders her to hold the bucket, and Carl will lead them in.

After about seven minutes, Carl complains about not getting anything.

"Little suckers know something's up. You're the key in all this. Anna and I are going to scare em your way." Shane then begins pepping him up, doing a 'mean face.'

"Ok Anna May, you're going to splash around, get their attention." He takes the tin bucket and they splash around, as Anna giggles loudly. "Get them little man!" Carl waves the net around in the water, and it's actually fun.

The fun is interrupted by Lori. "Hey Carl, what I'd tell you about leaving Dales sight?"

"Shane said we could catch frogs." Carl nervously explains.

"It doesn't matter what Shane said, it matters what I say. Go on, back to camp. I'll be right behind ya."

"I got to say I don't think you should be taking this out on him." Shane says, head in hands.

"You don't tell me what to do you lost that privilege." Lori says, walking away.

"Wait could you just wait a sec, I don't want to talk about this in front of Anna."

"There's nothing to talk about, you can just go tell it to the frogs."

They begin arguing and Anna goes back to camp before something bad happens. "Hey, want to play tag?" Carl asks.

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes to get dry." She goes back to the tent and changes, but frowns when she can't find a clean shirt. Carol must've taken her clothes to clean. She puts on a jacket with nothing under it and quickly goes to the quarry, hoping no one sees her.

"Ed I'll tell you what, if you don't like the way you're laundry's being done you can do it yourself. Here." Andrea says tossing a shirt at Ed. Thank god they were finally standing up to him. Hopefully Carol would too.

She frowns when Ed tosses it back. "Ain't my job missy."

Anna goes to a laundry basket filled with her and Shane's clothes. "Thank you." She says quietly to Jacqui, hoping to get out before she saw Ed hit anyone.

"Don't think I won't knock you on your ass just because you're some college educated bitch." She stops walking away and turns back around when she hears that. Was he kidding?

"You better come now, or you're gonna regret it later." Ed sternly tells Carol.

"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed?" Jacqui asks.

Carol tries to call him down and Ed slaps. He freaking slaps her. How does Carol put up with him?

This cause all the woman to furiously push at Ed, who is still pulling Carol by her wrist. Anna notices her dad watching, hopefully he'll do something, since she can't. Ed's at least foot taller than her.

Thankfully, Shane grabs Ed off Carol, throws him to the ground and pummels his face in. "You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time. I'll beat you to death, Ed," Shane warns. He kicks Ed in the side before storming away while Anna and the rest of the women look stunned. Carol cries, but Anna knows he got what he deserved. Ed's probably done much worse to Carol. Shane and Anna walk to the tent together.

"While I'm glad you did it, you kind of took it too far. You could've killed him, daddy." Anna says, turning her back to put on denim shorts and a clean t-shirt, a pink and white striped one.

"If I wanted to kill him, I would have." He says seriously. Anna just shakes her head and puts her cap on before leaving the tent.

She and Carl play tag with Sophia, Eliza, and Louis, breaking her dads rule. After ten solid minutes of letting Louis win, we all get called over by Miranda and Lori to help with dinner.

It's pretty boring, until Amy and Andrea come back with a bunch of fish. "Ladies, thanks to you, my children will eat tonight." He takes the lines of fish and holds them up proudly. "Thank you."

"Thank Dale. It's his canoe and gear." Andrea says, taking a drink of water.

"Mom look, look at all the fish!" Carl eagerly points. "Whoa."

Lori giggles. "Yeah whoa. Where'd you two learn to do that?"

"Our dad." Amy smiles and Andrea nods.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asks wide eyed.

"Sure, I'll teach all about nail knots and stuff." Amy glances at Andrea, and Anna senses an inside joke. "If that's ok?"

"You won't catch me arguing." Lori says scrubbing a pot.

"Didn't Shane and Rick teach us a long time ago?" Anna asks, raising an eyebrow.

Carl laughs. "Anna, we both know our dads suck at fishing."

Dale approaches and Andrea says something about his gear, but he doesn't listen. "I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." Shane puts on his hat before marching over. Dale points to where Jim is profusely digging.

"Let's go check it out." Shane says. They make their way to Jim. Anna sees what he's digging now, it makes her face go white. Graves. Six feet by three feet, he's dug so many of them.

"Hey Jim?" Shane says with his hand in his pockets. Jim keeps digging. "Why don't you hold up, give us a second here, please?"

Jim places his shovel in the ground. "What do you want?"

"Where all just a little concerned man that's all."

Morales steps forward. '' Dale says you've been out here for hours."

"So?"

"So why you digging?" Shane laughs, "You heading to china Jim?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm not hurting anyone."

"Except maybe yourself. It's a hundred degrees today." Dale pleads.

"Jim there not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring us. You're scaring my son, and Carol's daughter." Lori says, and Anna is thankful she didn't say her. That would be embarrassing, she scared for Jim, not of him.

"They got nothing to be scared off." Jim says. Anna turns to Sophia, she doesn't look scared. Neither does Carl.

Jim tells them to leave him alone, which Anna will gladly do. She turns and starts to walk away, but Shane pulls her back. "Why don't you get yourself in the shade, and rest for a bit?"

"Or what? You'll beat my face in like Ed Peletier?"

Anna scoffs. Does he think Shane did that for fun? Ed's clearly an asshole. If Jim can't see that, the sun must've gotten to him bad. Anna ignores everything else Jim says, knowing he's just mindlessly insulting her dad. She instead goes to comfort Sophia. "He's just confused, Soph." Anna says, wrapping her arms around the timid girl.

"Anna right baby. Do you want to go check on your dad?" Carol asks, holding her daughters hand. Sophia shakes her head no.

"Can we just go back now?" Sophia asks, and Carol nods.

"Walk her back Anna. I'll be there in a second, okay?" The two nod and Anna walks her back, sitting her on one of the logs.

"I'm not upset about my dad you know, I'm glad someone finally did it." Anna squeezes her hand before Carol calls them for school. 'School' was them sitting at tables working out of books Carol had brought, Sophia was homeschooled so Carol already had everything they needed. They had to do twenty minutes of the four main subjects every day, even weekends. Anna didn't mind, she had liked school. She would have like it better if it was just Carol though, Lori gave Carl all the easy problems.

Shane ties Jim to a tree, and he finally drinks water. They murmur things Anna can't hear, but assumes that it's nothing.

"I'm sorry if I scared your kids."

"You had sunstroke nobodies blaming you." Lori says quietly.

Dale asks why he was digging. "I had a reason, don't remember," Jim says. "Something I dreamt." He tells Carl that the boy was in his dream, and that his dad was there, too. "You were worried about him," Jim tells Carl. "Can't remember the rest."

He asks Carl if he's worried about his dad — Carl is, saying, "He's not back yet." Lori tries to end the conversation but Jim continues. "That man, he's tough as nails. Ain't nothin' gonna stop him gettin' back here to you and your momma, I promise you that."

Shane agrees. "Who wants to help me clean some fish?" he asks.

"Sweet, come on guys." Carl says, and the three run off. The fish smells gross, so Anna wanders off and places chairs around the campfire for the fish fry.

"So I hear it's your birthday tomorrow." Anna says to Amy. Amy nods. "How old are you turning?"

"Twenty-five." The blonde says sheepishly.

"Ooh. The big two five. Happy early birthday." Anna smiles.

"Just don't tell anyone. Its kind of a disappointing time for a birthday." Amy says, sitting on one of the chairs.

Anna sits next to her, and one by one people join them. They begin cooking the fish, and it slowly gets darker. Everyone tells funny stories when there not stuffing there face. "You know, I think this is the best day we've had since this thing started." Anna whispers to her dad, not wanting to disrupt Dale's story about watches. Shane pats her head, nodding in agreement.

"You are so weird." Amy tells Dale before standing up.

"Where are you going?" Andrea asks, worried.

"The bathroom, jeez, you try to be discreet around here." She laughs before heading to the RV.

Everyone goes back to their own conversations, but the happy mood is interuppted by Amy's scream. Anna turns around and sees a still screaming Amy as a walker bites into her arm. "Oh my god." Anna whispers. More walkers stumble into camp, attacking from all sides. More people start screaming, and Anna hears the children crying. One walker woman approaches the campfire, and Shane shoots.

Anna knows she has to be brave, like she wasn't this morning. She pulls her gun from its holster and points in the direction of a male walker. She shoots him once in the chest, the kick surprising her. She points it higher and shoots him in the head before following her dad and the others.

Jim and Morales beat walkers down with baseball bats, and Andrea runs to Amy. The terrifying situation doesn't last long, as Rick, T-Dog, Daryl, and Glenn run back into camp. They kill the remaining walkers, and everyone stands there catching their breath.

"I remember what I was digging holes for." Jim says, still holding his bat.


End file.
